College gun claim makes mailer alarming

Hasson on weapons

Here is the record on San Diego Community College board candidate Scott Hasson’s Facebook and related activities on weapons:

• In 2010, he signed an online petition opposing a bill sponsored by former San Diego State Assemblywoman Lori Saldana to ban open carry of unloaded handguns inside city limits. State law at the time did not clearly ban the practice. The bill did not become law.

• On June 28, 2011, Hasson posted a Facebook comment addressing similar legislation, Assembly Bill 144, which was enacted. “Sad to say this is a done deal ... The libs have won,” he wrote. “They are taking another step to take away constitutional rights.”

• Hasson last year joined a Facebook group opposing a provision of state Senate Bill 661 that would have enlarged the existing gun-free zone around schools from 1,000 to 1,500 feet. The provision failed.

Take part

The stark San Diego Community College board campaign mailer is short on details — in fact, the target doesn’t even get a first name.

“Opponent Hasson believes college students should be allowed to openly carry firearms,” it says.

Unlike many hit pieces coming to the attention of U-T Campaign Watch, this one comes with no footnotes, no backup. Just states it as fact.

“It’s a blatant lie and a fabrication,” says Scott Hasson, a Tierrasanta resident and contract manager for a renewable energy firm. “I am a proponent of the Second Amendment, but I’m against carrying weapons on college campuses.”

The mailer supports Bernie Rhinerson, the San Diego Unified School District administrator running for the community college board. It was funded by the American Federation of Teachers Guild Local 1931 and the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community Colleges Districts Committee on Political Education.

Rhinerson said he had no hand in the mailer.

“I really don’t know anything about that,” he said. “It was not sent from my campaign.”

Jim Mahler, president of the teachers local, told Campaign Watch that the assertion is based on Hasson’s Facebook postings, where he spoke out against legislation banning “open carry,” the practice of carrying unloaded guns in public.

That arose in California a couple of years ago when Second Amendment advocates began appearing at forums and other public places carrying rifles as show of their right to bear arms.

Assemblywoman Lori Saldana attempted to ban the practice. Her legislation did not affect state law regarding college campus grounds, where weapons were already banned.

Hasson acknowledges he opposed her law, but said that had nothing to do with allowing guns on campus.

“I personally don’t like open carry and would not open carry myself,” Hasson said. “What I was arguing against was any more restrictions on Second Amendment rights. I believe that if people want to open carry, they should be allowed to, but not on any campus.”

Hasson is also tagged in the two-page mailer with the claim he “actively lobbied for legislation to reduce the gun-free zone around schools.”

That comes from another Facebook posting where he indicated opposition to a bill that would have increased the existing 1,000-foot gun-free zone around schools by 500 feet.

Hasson said he never did any actual lobbying against that bill, and that the mailer unfairly portrays his general opposition to further restrictions on weapons.

“I’m not a gun nut,” he said.

The piece also may be backfiring on his opponents, he said. It’s drawn attention to what has otherwise been an under-the-radar campaign and prompted calls of support from other Second Amendment advocates.